


The Candy(wo)man Can

by Tht0neGal666



Series: rairpair naruto 2019 [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Candy Making, Established Relationship, F/F, Hyuuga Neji Lives, Non-Canon Relationship, Not Canon Compliant, Tenten will not be fixing it., and Ino has a Thing about posioning people for their own good., candy corn, cannon is fake, post cannon, tenten had to get by somehow as a kid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-28 22:59:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21144638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tht0neGal666/pseuds/Tht0neGal666
Summary: "I did not expect this to be this...complicated." Ino admitted, scrunching up her nose. "I always thought candy corn was like.... baked condensed colored sugar. Like, you'd made the mix, and then put it in an ice cube tray and out it in the oven, then soak it in dye. Or something.""Hm." Tenten responded, tilting her head as she nonchalantly boiled corn syrup, butter, and sugar, "Remind me to never let you make anything. Ever." She requested, and Ino rolled her eyes.





	The Candy(wo)man Can

**Author's Note:**

> I love Tenten but I haven't gotten around to writing her yet much so. her characterization's a little shakey? But! Here's a couple of girls being gay!

"Wait a fucking second," Ino growled, glaring at her girlfriend. "You _make _candy corn?"

"Well, yeah." The weapons-mistress shrugged, piling ingredients into the basked Ino was carrying and idly flipping a kitchen knife that she had picked up at some point while they were shopping. "It's, like, the _only _thing that the Akamichi don't bother making, and the imported shit from Kusa tastes _horrible_. A war-orphan's gotta put money in her pockets somehow. Oh, grab that, will you?" She hummed, pointing at a bag on a top shelf. 

If Ino was going to wear _six inch stilettos _to the grocery store, she supposed, the least she could do was put her long arms to use.

"Why don't the Akamichi make it?" Ino inquired. It was weird, thinking that there was something that the Akamichi didn't know how to make. Growing up, Choji's mom made a point to give him a new lunch _every single day_. Chouji had claimed once that his mom never made him the same meal twice- and his dad was nearly as bad! 

Candy Corn, of all things, seemed like a weird blind-spot, for such a food-orientated clan.

"Ummm...something about a bet that one of the clan heads made with Sato-shisou, I think? I was only really told once, and I was...preoccupied, at the moment." She huffed a laugh, swiping food coloring from an isle.

"Sato-shisou? When did you get a _master_? Does Gai-san know about it?" She prodded, and Tenten huffed another silent laugh. Sometimes Ino was so unrelentingly nosy that Tenten could almost forget she was well on her way to head of T&I.

"When I was, like, 6. Sato-shisou was the old bat that plucked me up off of the street and put me to work in her bakery in exchange for dinner and a bed, most nights." Tenten recounted, sounding almost _wistful_, which was honestly kind of creepy. Something Ino always admired about her was how easy it seemed for her to move on. That unwillingness to dwell on the past and determination to make her own future may very well be one of Ino's favorite things about the Weapons Mistress.

Tenten tensed and threw the knife she had lifted straight trough a window. Through the shattering of the glass, Ino heard a man cry out, and Tenten's lips curled. "She taught me how to handle a knife, too." She claimed, turning to face the now-frantic store clerk with a grin that could cut through stone. 

Just like that, she shifted her shoulders and her eyes were clear, and she was forking over money (from Ino's wallet? When'd she steal that?) for repairs and checking out. Ino let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, still awed by how swiftly Tenten moves on even after watching her do so dozens of time over. 

She just...continued, with her life, after bad things happen to her. Ino thought bitterly of flowers and pink, of fans and black, and wished again she could do the same.

\--

"I did not expect this to be this...complicated." Ino admitted, scrunching up her nose. "I always thought candy corn was like.... baked condensed colored sugar. Like, you'd made the mix, and then put it in an ice cube tray and out it in the oven, then soak it in dye. Or something."

"Hm." Tenten responded, tilting her head as she nonchalantly _boiled_ corn syrup, butter, and sugar, "Remind me to _never _let you make anything. Ever." She requested, and Ino rolled her eyes.

"Please. Baking's just chemistry, right? I do easily enough that every day. What's the worst that could happen, really?" She challenged.

"Well, for one, you'd try to make candy corn and end up making _caramel._" Tenten hummed, stirring vanilla into the mixture as it stopped boiling. "Seriously, isn't your brother an Akamichi? Why don't you know anything about baking."

"Because my _brother is an Akamichi. _He'd blow a gasket if I tried to do _anything _in the kitchen- if for no other reason then to prove a point to Shikamaru."

"Wow, really? I thought Shikamaru got off his sexist bullshit years ago." Tenten scoffed. "Does he need a refreshers course on basic human decency?" She offered.

"Mmm, as tempting as it is to watch you try to kill my brother, I'll have to pass. He totally cut the shit years ago after...the incident." Ino confirmed, doing something between a grimace and a grin. "Scared him straight."

"Ya sure? I'm sure I can squeeze him in with Neji. He hasn't exactly done anything, lately, but it can't possibly hurt to give them a reminder here and there, right?" Tenten pressed, and Ino sighed.

"Is this about-" She started, exasperated, and Tenten nodded immediately.

"_Yes. _It always is, you know that!"

"It was _one kunai_." Ino rehashed. "We were _15\. _ You got it back!"

"It was _the first kunai Gai-sensei gave me_." Tenten seethed, just as angry as the day it happened, "And he gave it back to me _with a notch in the handle_. He's lucky to be alive. If you hadn't persuaded me that he was important to the village-"

"You mean confessed and then kissed you until you went blue from lack of oxygen."

"It was a _very persuasive _kiss, and it saved that bastard's life." She growled.

Ino had to smirk. For how easy it was for Tenten to move on from the most _horrible, scarring, life changing _things, she was so _damn petty _over small shit like this. A beautiful, breathtaking, headache inducing bundle of contradictions, is what she was.

(Ino loved her _that much more _for it, though.) 

"How about you show me how to make some caramel when we're done with this, and we can spike it and gift it to Shikamaru." She compromised. Maybe a bit of Hedera Helix? Shikamaru really needed to keep up on his Mithridatism-doses.

"Ugh, yeah, okay. That works, I guess." Tenten relented, separating the mixture that was now a dough into three bowls. "Relationships are about compromise, right?"

"Comprise and healthy communication." Ino nodded, wordlessly helping Tenten shape the dough into tiny little triangles.

Tenten laughed, putting the candies into the oven and turning around to kiss Ino. "Guess that makes us a model couple, huh?" She fished, half sarcastic, but Ino obliged anyway, leaning into the kiss with a smile. 

They weren't perfect but, really, they were closer then anyone else in their garbage-fire generation, as _close as they could get_. That had to count for something.

"Just about. Did you expect anything less?"


End file.
